A Thousand Reasons
by MountainAir
Summary: "What if I woke up, and you were still my sister? What if there were still a thousand reasons we couldn't be together?" Jace needs confirmation that things are as good as they really are. And who will be there to convince him? Clary, of course.


"You drool when you sleep, you know."

Clary, scarcely awake, sprung up from her covers with a squeal. There was blinding burst of light in her face from the window that had miraculously opened without her getting up. She wondered sarcastically who would have possibly done this to her at such an early time."Jace?" she mumbled. "What are you doing?"

He stood up from the chair in the corner leisurely, as if he'd been there for hours and was just now getting back up. He walked over to the edge of her bed and sat down, looking down at her. Clary couldn't read his expression; her mind was still too foggy from sleep, and her eyes were beginning to droop shut again from exaustion. She couldn't have gotten more than a few hours of sleep last night.

"I needed to see you," said Jace. Clary rubbed some of the sleep from her eyes, then hoisted herself up onto her elbows to get a better look at him. The light from the window was illuminating the side of his face, making him appear as much of an angel as Clary thought him to be. It brightened his skin tone and made his cheekbones stick out prominently. Clary looked down at her hands, feeling a blush creep into her cheeks.

"Why? Did something happen?" she asked.

Jace moved closer, so close that she could practically feel his warmth penetrating her skin. It was as if she were standing in direct sunlight on a hot day, just being near him. Jace took one of her hands from her lap and began to stroke her fingers absent-mindedly, as if he weren't quite aware he was doing it.

"No," he said. "Nothing happened."

Clary frowned. "Oh," she said. "Well, what time is it? I'm still so tired..."

As if proving her point, a huge yawn cut across her face. Jace grinned. "It's seven-thirty."

She groaned and pulled her hand away from his, shoving her face back into the pillow. "Wahwakemup?" she mumbled angrily.

Somehow he was able to catch the aggravated words she grumbled into her pillow. "Because-" he paused, and Clary peered up at him, curious. Jace rarely caught himself on his words. He didn't sound teasing anymore, either; his voice had taken on a serious note to it, one that she recognized from some of their most heart-wrenching conversations. Suddenly the pillow was gone from her face, and he was pulling her up to look at him. Their faces were merely centimeters apart, so close that she could feel his warm breath brushing across her face when he spoke.

"I needed to make sure that you were okay," Jace said. His eyes bore into hers, and as much as she would have thought it strange, she couldn't look away, not from him. "After last night, I needed to something to convince myself that it hadn't all been a dream, that I hadn't just imagined everything that happened. What if I had woken up, and you were still my sister? What if there were still a thousand reasons we couldn't be together?"

This time, Clary didn't pull away when he took her hands. She could only watch him, her limbs supposedly frozen, as he brought them up to his lips and slow, gently, kissed each of her palms. Clary closed her eyes with the contact, and leaned in towards him. Her lips brushed against his as she whispered, "Nothing's stopping us from being together, Jace. Never again."

For a moment she felt as if time were frozen. She could hear his heart beating, strong and fast. His hands laced into hers, and he cupped her face gingerly, as if she were a delicate petal, so easily broken that it seemed as if his hands were only brushing her cheeks. But she didn't mind, because he was here and he was hers, just as she was his. And nothing could change that. Not blood ties, or war, or Valentine.

When he kissed her, her mind left her. His lips were soft against hers, and warm. She wanted to escape into Jace and lose herself forever. Clary moved her hands from his and slid them up his arms to tangle themselves in his hair. It was as silky as she remembered, from when she'd first kissed him. Before they were lied to, before they were forced apart.

Jace broke the kiss first, probably so that Clary could breathe, something she'd completely forgotten to do.

"Sorry," said Jace. She could hear the smile in his voice.

"For what?" Clary asked.

He pulled away so that he could look at her, and stroked the circles under her eyes. "Waking you up. You look so tired."

"No," she said softly, tucking her face under his chin. "Not anymore."

But her body betrayed her, because a moment later she yawned again. Jace kissed her forehead and lay her back down into the pillows. "I think you are," he said with a grin. "I'll come back to see you soon, once you get some sleep. I promise."

"Jace-"

But he was already gone, right out the window like the crazy Shadowhunter he was. Clary sighed and turned onto her side. She closed her eyes and hoped for sleep to take her, because surely if she slept off another few hours, she could go and find him again.

But her lips still tingled from his kisses, and her skin was still warm from where he'd touched her. _There's no way I'm going back to sleep now,_ she thought. _No way._


End file.
